Table 1.
Relative abundance of nematocyst composition and average length of tubule.
Fig 1.
Average number of nematocyst per 1 g of tentacle.
Average numbers ± SD of nematocyst in 1 g of tentacle from A. aurita, C. pacifica, C. yamaguchii, and C. brevipedalia. Ranges of tubule length are A: all, B: longer than 100 μm, and C: longer than 200 μm. N = 3 for each species. * indicates p < 0.05 one-way ANOVA. The same superscript letters (a, b) on the bar graph show that the bar belongs to the same group (Tukey’s test, p<0.05). N.S. indicates not significant.
Fig 2.
Percentage of classified length of discharged nematocyst of five jellyfishes.
The measured nematocyst tubule lengths of A: A. aurita, B: C. pacifica, C: C. yamaguchii, and D: C. brevipedalia were classified into 20 classes every 100 μm. The average number ± SD of each class was plotted.
Fig 3.
Micrographs of discharged nematocyst.
The major discharged nematocysts in this study are shown. A and B were from A. aurita. C, D, and E were from C. pacifica. F and G were from C. yamaguchii. H and I were from C. brevipedalia. A) atrichous isorhiza, B) heterotrichous microbasic eurytele, C) heterotrichous microbasic eurytele D) atrichous isorhiza, E) isorhiza o-haploneme, F) microbasic mastigophore, G) large oval p-rhopaloid, H) heterotrichous microbasic eurytele and I) atrichous isorhiza. Scales are shown by the scale bar. Each nematocyst was identified by referring to previously described nematocyst nomenclature [1, 2, 23–26].
Fig 4.
Simplified schematic of the relationship between human skin and nematocyst tubules.
Simplified epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis are shown based on the reports of the biceps [20] and the lateral aspect of the upper arm [29] of human. E) epidermis, D) dermis, H) Hypodermis, A) artery, V) vein, N) nerve fiber, BM) basal membrane, FNE) free nerve ending from Aδ fiber, X) nematocyst of which tubule lengths ≤200 μm are corresponding to nematocysts of A. aurita and atrichous isorhiza of C. pacifica, Y) nematocyst of which tubule lengths from 200 μm to 600 μm are corresponding to microbasic mastigophore of C. yamaguchii and heterotrichous microbasic eurytele of C. pacifica (see Table 1), Z) nematocyst of which tubule lengths >600 μm are corresponding to heterotrichous microbasic eurytele of C. brevipedalia (see Table 1). Boxed a) Innervation range of the subepidermal nerve plexus and subpapillary plexus and boxed b) Innervation ranges of dermal nerve plexus and subcutaneous plexus.